Kem CoBa and it’s perfect ice cream

Sometimes, it’s a very good thing to know that there is a frabjous and intensely awesome ice cream place just a jaunt away from one’s house, nestled on Fairmount, near St Laurent st.. Now, if only I could have turned back time to take advantage of Kem CoBa’s offerings from the *beginning* of the summer (especially during that heat wave, boy howdy), the popsicle industry might have suffered terribly (awwww) but I would have been privy to the full spectrum of ice cream and sorbet flavours by now – as listed on the site:

Glaces / Ice cream

Cacahuète et miel / Peanut Butter & Honey

Chocolat noir 72% / 72% Dark Chocolate

Lait d’amande / Almond Milk

Masala Chaï

Mango Malai

Noix de coco / Coconut

Matcha (thé vert / green tea)

Vanille / Vanilla

Sorbets

Citron / Lemon

Fraise-litchi / Strawberry-Lychee

Framboise / Raspberry

Fruit de la passion / Passion Fruit

Hibiscus

Lime-menthe (Mojito doux) / Lime-Mint (Virgin Mojito)

Mangue / Mango

72% chocolate + black cherry (a new flavour this week!)

Kinda always rotating, and this is a good thing: it means I will be back, must be back, and bringing friends before the hot months are over and while ice cream still makes the world stop for about 5 minutes and turn to colours as you spoon the fast-melting magic into your imagination… riotous drippy deep lush strawberry blooms, deep woodsome chocolate umbrous ca-cao-co, refractive lime-speckled minty ice, and mango – mango coloured mango! For mango eaters and mango lovers alike!

green ice cream + mango sorbet

peanut butter & honey + strawberry lytchee

I swear to you the green tea ice cream tasted MORE like green tea than 90% of the green teas I’ve ever had, I think they must import it from somewhere cool. That being said, they pay close attention to ingredient quality here and it shows, clearly. They had a lot of patience with my annoyingness as I sampled darned near most of the display (brain fuzzing and popping with renewed delight for each small bite), and each flavour was clean, and sophisticated, and true. And, as I mentioned, almost tasting more of itself than the thing… itself. If that makes sense! That 72% chocolate is like eating a doubly-rich chocolate bar, whipped to goo and ice cold, with all the boring cocoa butter replaced with CREAMMMMM —– I mean, come ON! Yes, they are doing something right. And the texture of this stuff? OH mannnnn. Impossibly umbly and softsoftchewy and sticky and fluffy, must be eaten to be believed.

Ngoc and Vincent, the owners and masterminds (and a happy couple!), are both trained pastry chefs and seem like total creative whizards and sweethearts. Kem CoBa itself means “third auntie’s ice cream” after a nickname that Ngoc’s niece gifted to her, and it’s this… I dunno… real people quality Kem’s got that makes it pretty special. Both times I went it was just the two of them working. Can you imagine that kind of operation where everything is an artisanal decision by the owners themselves? Yes, it’s that kind of place, and I highly recommend going. Myself, I still REALLY need to go back and try a Masala Chai & Coconut combination. ;)